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Assessment of Profit Efficiency of Smallholder Maize Farmers in Limpopo Province, South Africa: A Stochastic Frontier Approach Cover

Assessment of Profit Efficiency of Smallholder Maize Farmers in Limpopo Province, South Africa: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Open Access
|Mar 2025

Figures & Tables

Multicollinearity test of variables included in the profit efficiency/inefficiency analysis

VariablesCollinearity statistics

toleranceVIF
Efficiency variables
Fertiliser cost.5311.883
Pesticide cost.4302.326
Herbicide cost.4472.238
Hybrid seed cost.4992.005
Water cost.7681.302
Labour cost.6381.568
Tractor cost.6491.542
Transport cost.7751.290
Storage cost.6201.613
Processing cost.3722.691
Mean VIF 1.846

Inefficiency variables

Age.6291.589
Education level.8081.238
Household size.9611.040
Farming experience.7421.347
Mean VIF 1.304

Maximum likelihood and profit inefficiency determinants

ParametersCoef.St. Err.p-valuet-value
Production factor
(Constant)β0–17.7963.9080.000–4.55
Fertiliser costβ1–.013.6230.839–0.20
Pesticides costβ2.053.8230.5190.65
Herbicides costβ3.023.1080.8300.21
Hybrid seed costβ4–.053.0810.510–0.66
Water costβ5–.160.0470.001–3.42***
Labour costβ6–.035.0570.536–0.52
Tractor costβ7–1.591.5340.003–2.98***
Transport costβ8–.126.0740.0871.71*
Storage costβ9.111.1080.3051.03
Processing costβ10–3.893.4500.0008.66***
Insig2v 1.891.0840.00022.63
Inefficiency variables
(Constant)αo–8.53614.0310.543–0.61
Ageδ1.129.1910.5010.67
Education levelδ2–.748.6780.0701.68*
Farming experienceδ3–.019.0820.042–2.68**
Household sizeδ4–613.5060.226–1.21

Sigma2.574724
Mean dependent var2.367 SD dependent var 3.546
Log Likelihood–727.72436
Number of obs307 Chi-square 231.385
Prob > chi20.000 Akaike crit. (AIC) 1489.449

Population and sample size of the study

DistrictTargeted smallholder farmers (N)Sample size
Capricorn10722
Mopani37977
Sekhukhune37876
Vhembe510103
Waterberg14429
TOTAL1518307

Frequency distribution of maize farmers

Efficiency class indexFrequencyPercentage
< 0.605416.29
0.60–0.6911838.44
0.70–0.898427.36
0.90–099517.92

Mean: 0.612
Min: 0
Max: 0.90
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17306/j.jard.2025.00015r1 | Journal eISSN: 1899-5772 | Journal ISSN: 1899-5241
Language: English
Page range: 56 - 63
Accepted on: Feb 4, 2025
Published on: Mar 31, 2025
Published by: The University of Life Sciences in Poznań
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2025 Mokgoshi John Mamashila, Michael Akwasi Antwi, published by The University of Life Sciences in Poznań
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.